Forbes- 5/20/2012

Hamptons Cottage, Water Mill, New York
Many houses retain their quaint, rural charm, despite their multi-million dollar price tags. This Hamptons home, on the market for $6.2 million, looks like a relatively modest brick-exterior ranch house from the outside, but it?s the dwelling?s highly-wired innards that belie its exterior. A central control panel operates the house?s solar shades, auto key entry, and there?s even a spacious wide-screen digital home theater with reclining electric leather seating for eight. Sure, it may look like a simple country house, but beneath that charming exterior lurks one impressively tricked-out summer home.
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You may have heard that Bill Gates has a pool with an underwater sound system. And that Tony Stark?s (aka Iron Man) high rise houses 3-D holographic computer displays. But if you think technologically-sophisticated living is reserved solely for Silicon Valley tycoons and superheroes, think again. Not everyone can afford or prefers the same Citizen Kane-level of ostentation, but many luxury homeowners still look for innovative ways of maintaining, interconnecting, or adjusting their homes?and the results are pretty impressive.
Take, for example, the $12.9-million, six-bedroom mega-lodge located within the ski sanctuary of Telluride?s Mountain Village. It might look like a rustic nature retreat from the outside, but inside, all of the home?s systems are controlled by iPad, including in-floor radiant heat (it gets chilly up in snowy Telluride), room humidification and temperature controls, multi-room audio-visual control, alarm systems, and outdoor video monitoring. All can be controlled remotely, allowing the homeowner to pre-heat the floors and cue up a serenade of ?Baby, It?s Cold Outside? by the time guests stamp the snow off their boots.
Still, technology junkies don?t always prefer sprawling homes and multi-room control centers. High-tech often equals small and sleek, after all. One such sleek pad, nicknamed ?Closet House,? in Matosinhos, Portugal, offers residents the ability to change the actual layout of the small home to accommodate different needs or design preferences. Just 474 square feet, the modern marvel, designed by architectural firm Consexto, surprises inside with five different rooms?or ?living areas??two of which have walls that can be rearranged at the touch of a button. Having guests over for a movie? Need some privacy? Or are you just tired of your home?s layout? Just go all Optimus Prime and transform your home according to need or whim.
When it comes to custom-made, high-tech home building, prefabricated home systems can be a boon. Los Angeles? Proto Homes, for example, incorporates its signature architectural design elements with solutions that are tailored to the home and location. Wall panels and the home?s utility core are prefabricated and then assembled at the site, often in less than 16 weeks. And Proto?s Baldwin Hills home doesn?t skimp on the digital trappings either. Central air, music, and temperature can be controlled from a specialized iPad. Cooler yet is the homeowner?s ability to change ?skins,? or outdoor panels to switch the home?s color according to mood, season, or occasion. Kind of like changing the cover of an iPhone?but for your home.

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